I regret having to use such strong words but I can't say it any other way: I hate the idea of anything "freemium" in PS. IMO, PS is - in its very core - the opposite of much of that other commercial b******t.

Merchandise however, I think, is a great idea. And I don't think that it would be that costly to make. Afterall it's the design you need and then you can order it from any "your-print-on-our-ball-pens" store. And the design could be created for free by one of the game's committed artists ;-)

One would hope they make up sensible things for sensible levels but that is by no means assured.

It is also by no means assured, that what is in descriptions now is sensible. (Other than through GM control, and you have proposed the solution to that potential problem yourself.) So I don't see any new problems introduced. On the contrary: Making people think by using this feaure before writing about what others could actually perceive will improve on the RP quality of descriptions, IMO. If this feature eventually diverted the troublemakers' energy away from chat and into descriptions I would still call that a positive side-effect! This kind of asynchronous troublemaking is much more easily provable as well as contained!

What about those that would rp the levels that would trip it?

As I see it, people who intentionally do not use such huge parts of the available game features can't really expect to be catered when related features are concerned. They will have to do without adaptive descriptions as they have to do without crafting certain things, effecting most spells and so on. Seems a logical consequence to me and in no way unfair…

I think the idea of giving another player at chance to perceive things based on their skill is good, but I'm not a fan of using game mechanics for this for obvious reasons I won't blather on about.

Obvious?  ‒ Again, game mechanics is why we have a game. I know some people prefer to roleplay without backing their character with game mechanics, but then you also shouldn't expect to have a mechanical way to ascertain other people's skills or profit from related game mechanics passively (i.e. you can't have your pie and eat it)…

I'm aware that I am intruding on the "creative writing" RPers use of the game to some degree here, but IMO descriptions have a potential to be much more useful to the majority who does prefer to work with game mechanics, while there would only be marginal losses to those playing without skill mechanics. (As I will explain in greater detail below.)

Another way of implementing this would be to have players make some sort of perception check. ie. I ask you if my dark way experience would afford me any extra insight into your character, maybe you decide or you ask me to /roll if you want this attempt to be based on chance.

This would either require a considerable programming effort (and thus is not realistic to be adopted into the existing roadmap for the game). Moreover, this would be far too disruptive to general game play if you would constantly have to react to all the "view-my-char" requests by others.

Or if done manually, it would even more inflate descriptions with potential perceptions that have to be read by everyone including pseudo-mechanical instructions on how and what to roll. Very much contraproductive for making the descriptions more useful and more reader-friendly.

I prefer a good novel if I want a big read, not spending a long time working through someone's character description in order to decide which minute detail I skillfully or randomly perceive or not.  That's why I play a computer RPG and not P&P. For me reading time is better and more comfortably invested in print products by professional authors.

I tried to propose something that is realistic and can be done with (as far as I can judge it) a reasonably low programming effort to complement what is there in terms of game features and game mechanics. Reinventing the wheel is not feasible. Plus, what you propose would run in parallel and be in no way tied to the existing mechanics, which does not make sense at all in developing a cohesive software product. The question is again, why do we have these game mechanics if we don't tie new game features to them.

It has been brought to this provocative conclusion before, but a chat alone does suffice for this kind of RP. If you don't need mechanical stats and skills and use manual rolls instead then why should mechanical ways of perception matter. If the RP is so far away from the mechanics and people do this extensive Q&A interaction about what or what not to perceive, the minor details in a description do not really matter a lot. The loss of a few written extra perceptions through the avoidance of mechanical skill should not be a problem if most character features are negotiated anyway.

Opposing the complementation of the skill features as proposed for this reason alone seems a bit unfair to those who use mechanical skills and would like to profit more from them. (Not to speak about being unfair to the programmers who made the already present unused features, BTW)

Players would just need to adopt this style of play and get used to it.

True enough, but players could also adopt the use of already present game mechanics, which is much more likely. 

To summarise most of the above… Let's not go any further into the discussion of wheter PS should have game mechanics like skills or not. But since it was brought up I needed to address the aspect. It's off-topic. PS has game mechanics. If someone intended to undo that I guess that would need to go into a different whish-list thread.

And my proposal wants to make use of those mechanics and extend them. People who do not want to make use of that are not concerned, are they? Afterall using this feature would be entirely optional. Those who like their … 'ultrafaulkneresque' descriptions could keep them as before.

The purpose of character descriptions is like that of the name and guild label display: It's a workaround solution to the problem of not being able to display many individual features graphically on one's character. And I think here lies the strong point of my proposal. It would create a more individual description and would positively affect the dynamics between RPers who do use the game mechanics. ("Have you noticed the daggers this guy is hiding in his boots?" ‒ … ‒ "Well, if you don't believe me, ask another dagger fighter you trust.")

Hi, there. Not a strong wish per se, just sharing some sudden thoughts to get fellow player and developer feedback on it …

I just had an idea for a feature that I'm assuming is not too complicated to realise, but of which I'm not sure if it has been proposed before. It might in all likelihood, but with a rough search I couldn't find any related post here. 

What do you think of the possibility to mark certain parts of your character description with an easy syntax, to prevent it from being shown to everybody, but depending on the onlookers stats and skills?

Let me exemplify that with the following potential description:

Char: Lahm Hakuun - Nolthrir
This Nolthrir is rather on the small side. Even for his race he seems exceptionally thin and wiry.
{{Intelligence:200|You judge that this build could make him an agile fighter given some light weapons.}}
His clothing is plain and simple: Brown leather trousers and a whitish linen shirt, simple leather boots, worn by many miles of walking.
{{Knives & Daggers:50|Your experience with small blades allows you to notice a pair of knives hidden away in the shaft of the boots.}}
{{Charisma:200|You feel a distinct aura of Dweomer in your vis-à-vis.}}
{{Blue Way:100|Clearly you recognise the Blue aura that emanates from him. ‒ A fellow Blue Way mage.}}

That would mean that the marked parts are only visible if the person to whom the description is displayed has the given minimal stats or skills for each part. Assuming this should be fairly easy to implement as a parser-filter before display.

Of course one could think this even further: By allowing comparison of levels, you could also provide alternatives in the form of

{{Dark Way<30|If someone is easily impressed this guy could give them the creeps.}}
{{Dark Way >=30|Your progress on the Dark Way allows you to recognise another Dark Way mage in him.}}

Thus you could even hint towards certain perceptions possible with a higher level of a skill.
Even more flexible and possibly easier to use and implement would be the option of skill ranges:

{{Dark Way:0-29|If someone is easily impressed this guy could give them the creeps.}}
{{Dark Way:30-99|Your progress on the Dark Way allows you to recognise another Dark Way mage in him.}}
{{Dark Way:100-200|You perceive clearly of the Dark aura that surrounds this other Dark Way practitioner.}}

All in all I think this would be an asset that would improve the value of character descriptions two-fold:

• Character descriptions could be even more elaborate and creative, while providing characters with only the information that is relevant to them. Overall size of "the read" would be reduced, as every individual would only get to read parts that concern them in some way.
• The RP value of descriptions would be so much higher, with this targeted information. If people actually could learn something from the description that others don't know, it will make descriptions more exciting, more useful and thus used more frequently and intensively!

Hi, there.

I'm not authorised to speak about what is possible or not, but as an (not quite as) old player of 0.3+ I think I remember mentioning of a character wipe in the transition between 0.2 and 0.3. You didn't need a last name in 0.3 either, and my char also doesn't have one so that cannot be the reason for it not showing up.

Let's see what the 'authorities' say ;-) Hope you'll manage to get back in and enjoy all the new stuff, like crafting and the Eagle Bronze Doors ;-) ;-) ;-)

I would also like to add some praise for all the work done. 0.6 is full of little changes that have a great impact on gameplay in total. 

I agree to all of the above and I want to add a very little change that I liked a lot: More colours for books. That is so helpful, when organising knowledge and a library, to have the possibility to colour-code the books. I would also love to see more colors like yellow, orange, cyan, brown, purple. I know it may seem superflouus to some, but it is one of these tiny changes with a great impact for people working with this stuff. And I don't think these 5 icons and textures will bloat the game too much.

To all the devs. Keep up the great job and thank you for your efforts! 

Coming along very well! 

That video about glueing on gears was hilarious, btw. Thanks. 

Well, I thought of using single Nether Portal blocks as screens that can be set into walls: /give 90 1
Maybe complement that with a control block below: /give 137 1

Also fire on Netherrack is a great anachronistic asset to a steam punk building. For purpose of lighting, or as heating set into the walls along the hall in several fire places with chimneys. Even better behind glass, maybe! And don't have inflammable material like wood or wool near those (margin of four fields should be safe)

And don't forget the cobwebs and the vines to overgrow random parts!

Maybe you looked round the wrong place?